Lamb's New Year
by Serena Thorn
Summary: On New Year’s Eve Lilly gives a drunken Sheriff Lamb a glimpse into the future of Neptune. A future he may not live to see.


Title: Lamb's New Year  
Rating: PG-13  
Summary: On New Year's Eve Lilly gives a drunken Sheriff Lamb a glimpse into the future of Neptune. A future he may not live to see.  
Spoilers: General S2  
Characters/Pairings: Lamb, Lilly, Veronica, Logan, V/Logan, V/Lamb, Weevil, Keith, Sacks, mentions Lamb/Madison  
Word Count: 5710  
Disclaimer: Veronica Mars is not owned by me, but by Rob Thomas. I'm simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment.

* * *

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Neptune's sheriff really wouldn't know. Not when his intentions had been anything but good since he had been elected as sheriff. But that didn't mean he wasn't paving his own road to hell all the same.

Don Lamb had nearly the whole town fooled. He was a master at public relations, he knew how to bullshit and smile for the cameras and give a handout every so often.

None of that changed that he was also one of the biggest criminals Neptune had ever had the pleasure of employing. Extortion, blackmail and bribery, namely. If there was something in it for him he would do it, that simple. He was a bastard and he knew it. He was damn proud of that title too. You didn't get to where he was by playing by the rules.

Of course his slope had been nothing if not a slippery one and his downfall was getting closer with every step he took on the wrong side of the law he was supposed to uphold. It was his alcoholism came first. It was how he would deal with his day to day. His after work ritualistic downing of a six-pack a night had become a full twelve-pack before he graduated to a fifth of Jack each night.

At least he couldn't say his father didn't give him anything, he thought bitterly.

The drinking was easy and if anyone noticed they were smart enough to keep their mouths shut. His payoffs, naturally, were increasing with his gambling problem. He had to do something to combat his growing debts and given that he was also looking to retire early that meant taking bigger bribes from the more highly connected men of Neptune.

As if that weren't enough now it was the holidays. Thanksgiving had come and gone. Not a damn invite anywhere. Not even welcomed by his own family. And here you would think his mother would have thanked him for arresting her abusive husband. But no. Instead she had disowned her own son and taken the bastard back the second he got out of lock-up.

Then there was Christmas. He had beefed up his Scrooge-like persona because he knew no one was going to care enough about him anyway, he decided he may as well give them a reason to leave him out of their festivities. He didn't even bother with sticking a twig in a glass of water. It wasn't as though he had anything to celebrate. Even the novelty of the local strippers had worn off. He would still take the occasional hooker back to his place, but it was hollow like everything else in his life. At the end of the night he would still be alone, left wanting and $50 shorter.

Tonight was New Year's Eve. All of Neptune was in party mode and despite being off duty he wanted to crush every celebration he could find. Misery did love company and he wanted it by the truckload tonight.

"You're no longer a welcome customer here, Sheriff," the athletically build man behind the bar stated when he saw Lamb stumble inside. If he were there on official business, be it to break up a fight or take statements from destruction of the bar's property, then there wasn't anything Jim or his employees could do to keep him out. But on nights like this, nights that Jim knew the sheriff would be wreaking his own havoc, he wasn't any more welcome there than he was in most other parts of the small town.

"I'm the Sheriff of Neptune. I can go where I want," he replied, a few onlookers surprised he wasn't slurring his words quite yet. "Now when I was last here this was a drinking establishment, so do your job and pour me a drink," he went on as he took a seat on one of the bar stools.

As much as Jim wanted to refuse him, he had something better in mind. True, he could call one of Lamb's deputies to pick him up like he had been forced to do no less than three times that week already, but like so many nights before Lamb would either turn right back around and end up there again or would just go to another bar. At least here Jim was about to pour the younger man a mug of coffee and give it to him.

Lamb was hardly impressed when he realized the mug in front of him was meant to be his drink. No sooner had Jim turned his back to fill another order did he reach over for a drink someone else hadn't finished and slammed that instead. Yes he was drunk and yes he knew it. The fact he was still conscious was what had him drinking still. It was New Year's Eve, he was alone and didn't even have work to fall back on. Instead he was here, furthering his delusion that he would find the remedy for his pathetic life at the bottom of a bottle.

"You know, Jimmy, if you want to keep your liquor license I'd suggest you give your paying customers what they ask for. Otherwise you never know just how fast you might be out of a job with this place closed up. But if that's what you want I could make a call right now," Don drawled as he reached for his phone.

"Sheriff, you've clearly already had too much. We don't serve those who are drunk. You know that. I can call you a cab or one of your deputies. Either way, you're drinking your coffee or you're leaving."

Jim never was any fun, Don decided. He had never even had to arrest him. Completely boring. And now he was killing his buzz.

"Fine. I can have more fun somewhere else," he stated as though the man before him should be insulted.

Of course most knew that there weren't many places that Lamb could go tonight. The Veil was open but he knew he would never make it there. He could barely walk now as it was. There were no parties he had been invited to, no friends or family to hang out with or crash on the sofas of and no way would he give anyone at the department the satisfaction of seeing him like this. Still, he wasn't ready to go home so he headed out of the bar and to the sidewalk.

It was too hot in the bar anyway, he felt. The cold air felt good on his overheated face and served as reminder to him that he was still alive; even if he wasn't sure he currently wanted to be. Being feared wasn't the same as being liked or respected, minions weren't the same as friends and those hookers sure as hell weren't the same as having someone to come home to that actually gave a damn about him.

So lost in his self-pity as he walked, Don didn't see the patch of ice on the sidewalk that caused him to slip. And land flat on his ass.

Groaning, he let out a low curse and tried to assess the damage. Cold, wet jeans he could handle, mostly thanks to the fact he was burning up as it was. The blow to his pride, sure. He was used to that thanks to certain Marses who would remain nameless. Even the intense pain that was shooting up his back wasn't too horrible thanks to the numbing effects of his drinks of choice this evening. But that gut wrenching _crunch_ he remembered hearing when he landed was something else. Those payoffs he had received had lately been going straight to his bookies, no way could he replace that uninsured $600 cell phone now. Not if he hoped to keep a roof over his head that wasn't made of cardboard. Truth be told, it was already a wonder he had lasted this long without that being the case.

Lamb continued to sit on the curb a few feet from the bar, digging the broken pieces of his phone out of his back pocket and began throwing them to the ground in front of him. It didn't matter, he didn't have to be sober to know there would be no fixing it.

"Well, well, I guess littering isn't something that bugs you. Not surprised you weren't as intent as you claimed about cleaning up our streets," a vaguely familiar female voice mocked.

Don looked up to the person addressing him. Just because he could barely stand didn't mean he wasn't up for a fight. If anything the idea was giving him strength. Only to feel it ripped from him again when he saw just who the mocking tone belonged to.

He had to be dreaming, it couldn't be her. Lilly Kane was dead. She had been for almost three years.

"I know I'm a sight for sore eyes, but it's still rude to stare, Deputy. So, are you going to clean that up or are you going to have your friends do it like every other mess of yours?" Lilly asked him. She wasn't about to give him a break, he had screwed up the investigation of her murder, she was owed some payback.

Lamb stood slowly on his long, shaky legs and looked her over again. She wasn't dressed in her green and white pep squad outfit like she had been the last time he saw her. Instead she was wearing a black sheath of a dress, clearly ready for a New Year's Bash who knew where. There was no gash on the side of her head, no blood or brain matter in her long blonde hair. She looked healthy and alive. At that point he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be more surprised by.

"Y- you're dead," he said finally.

"Ding! Ding! Ding! Tell the man what he's won, people!" she called out to no one in particular. "Anyway, now that we've gotten that cleared up, I hear you're in need of a New Year's date since no one's letting you kiss your bottles all night long. Consider yourself lucky, there was a time there was a whole queue lined up to be my date on such special nights."

Don was just about to protest, to tell her that this couldn't be real, to remind her that she was dead, when he simply blinked and found himself standing inside the sheriff's department with his deputies hustling about.

"How'd you do that?"

"You are really going to have to pay attention here. You said it yourself, well you stammered and kind of slurred, but you're right, I am dead. Bright side to that is I have some powers that you living people can only dream of. Anyway, my point is that for lack of a better term I'm here to Scrooge you. You've been a very naughty boy this year and believe me there was a time I would've been more than happy to spank you for that. But ever since you almost let my murderer get away just because you were pissed at and jealous of Keith Mars, I've gotten over it. Now it's up to me to show you what the future holds for you."

Lamb would have thought that he had really had too much to drink except for that he wasn't drunk anymore. Somehow the little bitch had managed to steal his buzz from him! Needless to say, he wasn't happy. But then, too, the department didn't look the same as it had the day before. Desks hadn't just been moved, it was brighter, fresh coats of paint were on the walls, the chaos seemed to be more controlled despite the running around he was seeing his deputies doing.

"Nice trick, Kane. This is a joke, right? Having fun with the drunk guy?"

"Please, Lamb, you haven't been fun for years," she replied with a roll of her blues. "Everything you see here is the future. The future of Neptune at least."

"Hey!" he called out to a clean-shaven Sacks in an attempt to get his attention.

"He can't hear you," Lilly told him, ever unimpressed that he wasn't picking up on how this went. Didn't he watch TV that wasn't 'Walker, Texas Ranger' or 'COPS'?

"The sheriff's sure got his work cut out for us today, hasn't he?" a deputy he didn't recognize asked Sacks.

"At least they remember me," Lamb muttered to Lilly.

"Yeah, but at least this bust will be a clean one. I think one raid a week is my limit," Sacks replied.

The other, seemingly younger deputy laughed. "Still not over getting shot at two weeks ago, huh?"

"Wait. Sacks got shot?"

Lilly only shook her head. Couldn't Lamb just wait for the story to unfold for himself?

Sacks sighed. No he wasn't. That bruise just below his shoulder was still there, still nasty and still hurt. "Remind me to get the sheriff something nice for Christmas for investing in those new Millar vests. If Lamb had still been in charge I would've been dead for sure."

"I'm not in charge? Since when?"

"Naturally that's what you'd hear first. Not how you nearly got a deputy of yours killed because you felt it was more important to pad your own wallet as opposed to keeping your deputies safe."

"They never complained before," he grinned tightly.

"Maybe because unlike you some other sheriffs actually want to fight crime," she smirked.

Lamb gave another heavy sigh and looked away from the girl who was about to take the title as the more infuriating blonde he knew.

Then he saw it. "How the hell did this happen?!" he all but growled at the sight of the name on I_his_/I office door.

"Oh, you didn't hear about the re-instatement of the beloved Sheriff Mars?" Lilly asked sweetly. "Well, after you are essentially declared a full fledged lush who's on the take, you become the ousted sheriff and Sheriff Mars is once again welcomed with open arms."

"That bastard steals my job? When, huh? When does this lovely future take place? Ten years?"

"More like two. You didn't think you'd be able to hide those gambling debts of yours or the vodka or scotch on your breath forever, did you?"

"Who the hell do they think keeps this place running? If it wasn't for me -"

"More actual criminals would be behind bars, the organized crime syndicate would be gone and fewer people in the 09'er zip would be given preferential treatment. Oh, I'm sorry, you wanted the short answer. Who keeps this place running? Sheriff Keith Mars."

"He was wrong about your killer too, you know," he reminded her.

"And yet you ignored Veronica and one of your own deputies when you heard about the photos that proved Abel's innocence as well as that red light photo that proved my time of death was off. So two wrongs make a right in your world? Wow. No wonder Veronica changed her mind about you."

With that Lamb felt the ground beneath his feet shift again and before he knew it he was standing in what looked to be the living room of a rather nice house. With the snarky girl ghost extraordinaire right beside him still. Apparently this nightmare was far from over. The worst part being that he was sober for it now.

"What the hell does Veronica have to do with this?" Everything, he knew. But he wasn't about to admit it. Certainly not to the ghost of her dead best friend.

"She liked you once, you know? We both did. We even had a bet on who'd get you first. At least until I died and she realized you weren't worth it."

"Watch it!" he cried when a little boy nearly slammed into him as he ran through the living room with a bunch of other kids who looked to be the same age.

"They can't hear you either." Would he ever catch on? Lilly knew he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, but really, this was getting old.

"So where are we now, huh?"

"Look to your left," she smiled as she turned towards the kitchen where her best friend and ex-boyfriend were standing and watching the children play with smiles on their own faces.

"Nice to see Echolls finally has some playmates of matching intellect," Lamb scoffed at what had to be ten kids running through the place. At least he could be thankful it wasn't his leather furniture those kids were getting their sticky little fingers all over.

"We're about thirteen years in the future now, Deputy. These kids are about six. So even though you're pretty bad at this game, you want to take a guess as to who Logan's playmate of the last seven years has been?"

He didn't want to believe it. The girl made his skin itch on a good day and had him wanting to lock her up just to know where she was at all times on the bad days. He wasn't about to take Lilly's word for it, he thought as he walked over to Veronica and looked her over.

By Lilly's math that would make Veronica at least thirty now but damn if she wasn't still gorgeous. He ignored Logan and kept his gaze on the blonde who haunted his every dream and nightmare. Her hair was up, her make-up perfect, her clothes were nicer than he recalled and then he was damn near blinded when she brought her glass of water up to her perfectly pink painted lips to take a sip. That rock on her hand was big enough to take a man's eye out and for a moment he contemplated trying it. Either Logan's for clearly being the one who gave her that disco ball or his own just so he wouldn't have to watch any more of this.

"She marries Echolls?" He felt sick. They couldn't see him or hear him, fine. But they were about to see his scotch and Jack dinner all over their hardwood floors if this kept up.

"Oh, yeah. The more you arrested him the more she was there for him, the harder she worked to bail him out of his jams the harder they fought to work through their issues. If they thought about you at all they might've included you in their wedding toasts," Lilly replied.

"And one of these is theirs, huh? That's what you brought me here to see? The demon spawn of the son of the guy who killed you?"

Okay, that hurt. But Lilly shook it off. Logan wasn't like his father, he had filed for emancipation when he found out Aaron had killed her. That was the only proof she needed.

Lamb could hear Logan and Veronica talking and he did his best to tune out their conversation. He still hated Logan for one thing. The idea he was with Veronica was even worse. Still, his curiosity was a beast he had yet to slay.

"And here you thought you'd have to work on our son's birthday," Logan smirked to Veronica.

"All I've heard all week is how the Turner deal will go through any minute," she replied.

"So you don't miss your P.I. gig still?"

"You know, I really thought I would miss it more. It was exciting, sure, but when I look at our kids… I'm just really glad that I don't have to go to work now and wonder if they're still going to have a mom at the end of the day. With my dad back as sheriff I don't have to re-investigate time and time again. He always get the job done right, it's so great not having to clean up the former sheriff's messes anymore."

That time Lamb stormed out of the living room, wanting to get as far from this scene as he could. He was too angry, he wanted to break something. Anything. But he couldn't and he was trapped.

"This is what you brought me here? To torture me? Is that was this is? I died, right? Back on that ice, on the sidewalk? This is hell? This is what you brought me here for?" he demanded, ready to find out if he could strangle a ghost.

"I brought you here to show you how they've gotten along without you. Keith's back to being the sheriff everyone credits with building a safer, cleaner Neptune where crime doesn't thrive and Veronica and Logan are happily married. Also, these other kids? They're the kids of Veronica's and Logan's friends. Some friends you insulted like Wallace, others you arrested like Weevil and others that you never even knew or cared about. But if you think that's the end of our tour then you're even worse at figuring things out than I thought."

Despite the motion sickness Lamb was getting from the sudden transportation, he was almost getting used to the sudden jerks through time. It took him a moment but he recognized where they were. Downtown Neptune and it looked like there was about to be another gang shootout. He couldn't help the defiant smirk that crossed his face. Finally. Something the supposed beloved Sheriff Mars couldn't stop.

"You know how those who've been arrested, even for petty crimes, can't become cops?" Lilly asked.

"I think I have an idea," he openly grinned as he watched the Hispanic men load their guns. They couldn't see or hear them and Lilly was already dead so he knew he couldn't die here either. He could just watch from the best seats in the house and enjoy the idea of Keith's perfect record getting a swift kick in the teeth. Normally he wouldn't gloat about such a thing, at least not so blatantly, but clearly a lot of things were different about today.

"Well in this case, well, you'll see," Lilly grinned up at him.

He laughed when he saw Weevil come up with a gun in his hand. Some things hadn't changed. There was a swell of pride Lamb felt at that, at least there was one thing he could say he did better than Keith. In his day Weevil would still be in jail for his last venture.

"Hands up! Drop your weapons!" Weevil ordered the men as he came running up with his gun drawn.

"Down on the ground! Now!" Sacks ordered, only a step behind his partner.

One of the men shot off a round, Weevil nailed him with an extremity shot to the shoulder.

The others reluctantly did as they were told and inside of the next two minutes Sacks and Weevil had the men in handcuffs and were leading them to their back up officers who had been parked just around the corner.

"Navarro?" he growled. "How the hell did he manage this?! Convicted felons can't be cops!"

"You didn't get the memo? Wow. Okay, for one thing, Weevil is not a convicted felon as far as the Balboa County records are concerned. He I_was_/I an alleged petty thief with potential gang associations. However, nothing was ever proven so he was released. From there he managed to change his life around, he's been a good boy lately, so good in fact that Sheriff Mars expunged his record. He has a clean slate now, hence his lovely detective position in Balboa County's undercover division."

"And that traitor's training him," Lamb sighed with a shake of his head as he looked to his deputy.

"Let's add it up, shall we, Lamb? In two years you lose your job and what's left of your reputation. In seven your dream girl is happily married to someone you detest -"

"Veronica is not my dream girl," he stated firmly.

"Who said anything about Veronica?" she smirked. "I could've just as easily meant that Veronica look-alike you screwed in the elevator at the Neptune Grand."

Lamb glared. Little bitch.

"Anyway, as I was saying before I was so amusingly interrupted, by this point you've lost your job and reputation as well as any chance at the girl you claim to hate, Veronica and Logan are happily married with two kids, Keith walks on water as far as Neptune's voters are concerned and your former favorite deputy and Weevil are partners on the job. The best part? We're still not done yet."

Lamb was certain he was about to be sick that time. The being yanked through time aside, this was all just too much. He had no idea where his present self was through all of this, but clearly he wasn't married, didn't have the family life he didn't even know he wanted and those he had known obviously didn't give a damn about him now. He had learned early on he was better off leading people to believe he didn't have feelings, that he wasn't even human. But he did and he was and right then, internally at least, he was in agony. And it still wasn't over.

Another quick shift through time and they were right back to where they had started, back on the sidewalk outside of the bar.

"I'm getting the feeling you want something different. How about we go see Madison? You do remember her, right? She was the one I mentioned before, the girl you screwed when you couldn't have Veronica."

He groaned at the memory. He remembered. Unfortunately.

"Truth be told, Madison's more than a few pegs lower than the next best thing, but whatever. It's what you're used to, right? Using people for your benefit, not giving a damn so long as you get what you want in the end? Well, there ya go, hmm, I can only imagine what Veronica thought when she realized it."

"And you wonder why you got your skull bashed in," Lamb shot back to her.

"You're on to talk, Deputy," Lilly smirked as she turned around to direct his attention to a car that had been wrapped around a telephone poll, the steam still rising from the crumpled hood.

He didn't want to look. He thought of all the people he had seen already and Lilly had just mentioned Madison. Maybe he didn't consider the girl to be more than a hot piece of ass that looked more than a little like Veronica when the lights were low, but he didn't want to see her dead either.

"Lilly, I'm sick of this. You tell me right now, where the hell am I through this? Texas? Mexico?"

"I'll give you an A for effort here, admitting that you run away when things aren't going your way. But no, if you want to see where you are through all of this, keep walking."

Lilly manifested into the passenger seat of the car an instant later and watched as Lamb slowly made his way over.

It was dark but he was beginning to recognize the car. He really didn't want to look, he didn't want to see. His gut was tightening and another wave of nausea was hitting him. Even as he was hearing the crunch of glass beneath his shoes, he couldn't take his eyes from the man hunched over the steering wheel. His face was splattered with blood but he was impossible for him to not recognize. Minus the blood he saw that face every day that he looked into a mirror.

"What do you say, Deputy? Was it worth it? All of those bribes? All of those whores who hoped they wouldn't be the one you'd take home? All of the lies and hate and ridicule?"

Don couldn't ignore the tears that were stinging his eyes then. He had done good to last this long without breaking down, he knew. Still he had vowed a long time ago that no one would ever see him cry again. However, he chose to believe that realizing he was dead gave him a reprieve on said vow.

"Isn't there supposed to be some great, white light or something?"

"If you're going to heaven, yeah."

He almost laughed. He should have known he wouldn't be that lucky.

"You almost sound like you care that you may no longer be among the living," Lilly stated, curious.

"You think I want to die, Kane?"

"The way you've been going so far more than implies it," she nodded. "Though you could change, might earn you a few friends so the next time around someone more than Cliff McCormack would show up to your funeral."

"Next time around?"

"God, you are really bad at this!" she cried as she manifested beside him again. She really wanted to hit him, but restrained herself. "You're not dead, Deputy Dumbass! Not yet anyway. Tonight was about showing you your future if you keep going like you are. You want to be an asshole? Fine. Just don't be surprised when the world doesn't remember you fondly. Or even at all if they can help it."

"And you've got an idea as to how I'm supposed to change?"

"That's up to you. I'm just the messenger. It's up to you to get the message. I've led you halfway, the rest is in your hands. You can hold it close of clap, either way is your call. But if this gave you some sense of what you want then you know what you have to do. Unless you want that body in that car to be yours and all over the 11 o'clock news as the disgraced sheriff having died in a DUI."

With that Lamb had to sit. He knew the work that would be ahead of him and he wasn't sure he could do it. Did he even really want to? Would anyone believe it if he actually tried to change? He didn't know. But when he looked up to ask Lilly again what he was supposed to do he realized his surroundings were identical to those he had left. The broken pieces of his phone still littered the ground in front of him, he was back on the curb and Lilly was gone. He was alone again.

But for the first time in years he knew he didn't have to be, nor did he want to be anymore. Keeping people at a distance hadn't spared him from pain like he had believed it would.

As if summoned by the thought, he was blinded by a bright, white light. Squinting through the pain in his head and intense brightness before him, Lamb could surmise that it wasn't God calling him 'home' but instead a car that had stopped haphazardly just in front of the curb he was still sitting on.

He saw the hand being offered to him even before he could realize that someone had gotten out of the car and had walked towards him.

"Are you looking to freeze out here?" the man half-demanded. "Come on, Don, I'll take you home," he sighed as he offered him his hand again.

He knew that paternal scolding. Even drunk, he would know it anywhere. With a sigh, he took Keith's hand and let him haul him to his feet.

"You could've just left me, you know," Lamb told him as his former mentor put him into his car.

"Yeah but then there'd just be one more thing to clean up in the morning," Keith told him as he put the seatbelt over the younger man and clicked it into place.

"You wouldn't have to do it. Nobody would even know you were here if you just stepped over me and let me freeze."

"I'd know," Keith admitted.

"You don't even like me."

"Since when has that stopped me from saving someone from freezing to death?" Keith sighed as thought back to criminals from the past.

Lamb laughed, maybe a little more than he should have, but he knew Keith was right.

**

Epilogue:

Two years into the future that Lilly had shown him, that Lamb had known better than to write off as a bad dream, he had become a bad memory to Neptune. Both as a sheriff and as a human being.

Now, in this blissfully improved future, he was the beloved sheriff of Neptune. He was sober, he had friends, he had learned to treat people with respect; well, most people. The bookies he had owed were in jail, crime was down further than it had been since he had originally become sheriff and overall he was happy.

True, most had wondered if the "true" Sheriff Don Lamb had been abducted, but he just laughed. He knew no one would believe the story of Lilly Kane coming to him, of Scrooging him as she had called it. But that night had been the kick in the ass that he had needed.

As for those friends of his, Keith had become one of them, Sacks had always been the closest he had to a friend but now he knew he could call him one also, the same with Cliff.

Veronica had been the most skeptical of this changed Lamb, but even she had succumbed. He had tried to make the past up to her and even if he knew he never could the fact he had been willing to try had made Veronica see him in a new light. That new light she was reminded of every time she looked to her left hand now.

As for tonight, Lamb knew he was going to be able to ring the new year in right. He was happily married to Veronica, his home was full of their friends, sparkling cider and food as far as the eye could see, music that was sure to have them dancing all night and his midnight kiss was shared with none other than his favorite snarky, blonde, girl detective. The fact he knew Keith had no intention of punching him for that last one made it all the better.

By 12:01 they all knew that if the past two years and that night were any indication that things were only going to get even better from there.

The End


End file.
